


Like A River

by Oroborusfox



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Multi, Polyamory, Pregnancy, Threesome - F/F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-15 04:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2216256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oroborusfox/pseuds/Oroborusfox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulan, Aurora and Phillip fall in love. They're pretty happy with that, even if others aren't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rumors

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first a several connected vignettes that I've written about these three. There is no particular ending planned, and I'll just be posting as they come to me... which means they may stop at any time. And for that, I apologise in advance.

The palace staff, of course, gossip. Mulan suspects she is more aware of it than Phillip and Aurora, simply because she moves through the palace more quietly. Many times she has caught the last sentence of a conversation before her presence is noticed and silence descends.

The most popular theory in the early days was that she was Phillip’s lover. She had, apparently, stolen the prince’s affections from Aurora, but that the prince and princess were staying together out of duty. That Phillip dared bring his mistress with them and that he would make her captain of the guard, that – Mulan distinctly remembered one maid saying – was just cruel.

As if Phillip had a cruel bone in his body.

Not that that story had been able to hold up for long, with Mulan’s closeness to Aurora as well as Phillip.

She knows some suspected it was Aurora with whom she was having an affair, and that Phillip was merely tolerating it, forced to accommodate Mulan in order to secure his marriage. A marriage that was more advantageous for Phillip than Aurora.

As if Aurora would ever marry for something other than love.

There had been some that have hit close to the truth, but in the entirely wrong way. Mulan had been compelled, against her own good sense, to deal a soldier under her command after she heard him claim that she was the whore of both of them, that they had bought her as a plaything on their travels, and decided to keep around once they saw she could swing a sword.

She had not let on that she had heard. She simply chose him to spar with her, soundly defeated him, arching her sword towards his throat as he lay on the ground. The sword was close enough to his skin that it had caught a drop of his sweat. The soldier let out a scream, clutching his throat before realising he was unharmed.

Mulan held out her arm to help him up.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have got you,” she began as he got to his feet. She pulled him close and bared her teeth into what might have been called a smile if it was not so terrifying, “I am very good at swinging a sword.”

The soldier’s wide eyes and quivering lip let Mulan know that her point had been made.  
-  
While Mulan would never regret defending Phillip and Aurora’s honour, she did feel unsettled at her violent reaction.

“I acted inappropriately today.”

Phillip looked down to where she was resting on his bare chest, while Aurora pushed herself up onto her elbow, reaching out to cover Mulan’s hand with her own, feeling Phillip’s rising and falling chest beneath them.

“What happened?”

Mulan avoided Aurora’s eyes, but turned her hand so their fingers could tangle together. She felt Phillip begin to rub her back soothingly, and she pressed closer to him.

“One of my men, Brennan, made a comment… about us. An untrue comment that besmirched your character. I should have reprimanded him officially, but instead… I sparred with him dangerously, to scare him. He could have been injured.”

Mulan could feel the tension in Phillip’s body. She pressed a kiss to chest, hoping to calm him, but his voice still betrayed his anger.

“If he has disrespected you or Aurora, he has no place in my guard.”

Mulan sat up, shaking her head, “He will not do so again. I am not concerned about that. It was my behaviour that-“

“Was perfectly understandable.”

Aurora’s tone brooked no argument.

“You were defending us. While I can’t condone you scaring your own men, you obviously won’t be doing it again and you have probably beaten yourself up about it more than anyone else could.”

Phillip sighed and pulled Aurora to him for a kiss.

“We would get ourselves into a great deal of trouble without you.”

Aurora kissed him back sweetly, before doing the same to Mulan.

“Yes you would. Are you still troubled, Mulan?”

Mulan pulled Aurora close, wrapping an arm around the other woman’s waist. Phillip curled an arm around each of them.

“I am. But I will try not to dwell on it. And I will apologise to Brennan.”

She saw Phillip begin to respond, and cut him off, “I need to set the example. I will apologise and discipline him appropriately for his comments. It is the honourable thing to do.”

Mulan could tell Phillip was not content with this, and suspected Brennan would not be getting any choice assignments for a while.

Aurora, however, nodded approvingly.

“I think that’s the best way to go about it. Now,” Aurora paused, sliding over Phillip to straddle Mulan, “I am still not ready for sleep and I think you two may need to help me.”

Phillip moved to kneel behind Aurora, wrapping his arms around her middle and resting his chin on her shoulder so he could look down at Mulan.

“I think we can do that, what say you, Mulan?”

Mulan ran her hands up Aurora’s thighs and smiled.


	2. Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aurora and Phillip are in love with a soldier. Sometimes the reminders are harder on them than her.

It is not that Aurora likes the scars that cover Phillip and – even more so – Mulan. She does not like to think of her loves being hurt. But there is something to be said for the way the healed tissue compliments their other features. And it reminds her of how strong they both are, how they are alive and safe and with her. 

Aurora will often spend evenings tracing their scars, pressing kisses to them and asking how they were acquired. Phillip generally enjoys telling the stories of his adventures leading up to the injury, whereas Mulan will usually just state the weapon or beast responsible, until prodded into elaborating. 

It’s at those moments that Aurora become startlingly aware of the difference between a soldier and a prince. Phillip himself is at times troubled by the small snippets that Mulan reveals about her time in the war. He had heard some before, during their travels, but it was only when the three of them had tumbled into bed did he see Mulan bare, and the many scars she had collected. 

The first time they had lain together his lips had lingered on Mulan’s abdomen, on the large jagged line that ran from just below Mulan’s ribs, down her stomach, curving under her bellybutton before ending at her opposite hip. Aurora knew enough to conclude from the size and roughness of the skin that it had not been cared for properly at the time. 

When Aurora asks about that scar, Mulan refuses to answer beyond, “It was a knife.”

When they are alone, Phillip confides in Aurora that a wound like that, to be inflicted with a knife, would not be a battlefield injury. 

“That was not two soldiers in combat,” His mouth twists in anger, “that was a butchering.”

Once, as he kissed his way down Mulan’s body, he whispered that he would destroy any who hurt her. Mulan’s response had been that it was unnecessary. 

“Those who inflicted that wound… They are of no concern anymore.”

Phillip had risen then, cupping Mulan’s face and kissing her brow. Aurora placed her own hand over the scar, and they held each other close.


	3. Blessings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aurora has news. And fears.

Aurora falls pregnant entirely without planning. While she had always assumed she and Phillip would have children, rebuilding the kingdom and restoring the lands had taken precedent over even a discussion of the matter. This also meant they’d never got around to talking to Mulan about it, which resulted in Aurora’s immediate thoughts upon getting to news from their healer being, ‘does Mulan even want children?’ and ‘how do I not know if she wants children?’.

She tells Phillip first and is swept up is his arms in a joyous hug.

“This is wonderful!”

He kisses her and they quickly get lost in each other, but Aurora pushes him back when he starts moving them towards the bed.

“I have not yet told Mulan.”

She sees it, just for moment, before he can hide it. The tiny flicker of fear, so similar to her own.

Unaware that she has caught him, he smiles, but it is not as bright as the one before.

“Well, we must do so. She will want to celebrate with us.”

“Will she?”

Phillip’s face falls. He pulls her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting their foreheads together.

“It will be okay. She will be happy, I’m sure of it.”  
-  
“That’s excellent news.”

Mulan’s eyes are full of tears when she says it, and Phillip wishes - not for the first time – that he could tell happy tears from sad.

As always Aurora comes to his rescue, taking Mulan’s hands in her own.

“Mulan, this is our child. The three of us.”

Phillip may be bad with tears, but he knows his cue. He wraps Mulan in a hug and relaxes at the familiar feel of her sinking into him.

“I’m am so happy we’re going to be parents, Mulan.”

She clings to him for a moment before pulling back and turning to Aurora. Mulan drops to her knees and grips Aurora’s hips, pulling the princess close. Mulan rest her head against Aurora’s abdomen.

“It seems I will have another to swear my love to.”


	4. Something Borrowed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a wedding, of a sort.

Though they are both resistant, Phillip and Aurora know they must be wed. Though things are not they once were, and the opinions of neighbouring kingdoms matter much less as a threat to their rule, they know marriage is still the strongest way to ensure the loyalty of many.

But it seems wrong, for them to be married only to each other. They are not a pair. There is three of them, and no combination of two quite works without the third. 

Mulan dismisses their concerns, “I know my place with you. I require no title, whether it be ‘wife’ or otherwise.”

Aurora and Phillip still dislike it, but they wed, in a wedding fit for their positions. Mulan stands with them at the altar, face stoic, except for what some guest swear is the slightest hint of a smile.

When they can retire for their wedding night, it of them three of them that make their way to the royal bedroom, as happens most nights. 

As soon as Mulan locks the door behind her, Phillip and Aurora drop to their knees.

“Mulan,” Phillip begins, “we wanted nothing more than to say our vows to you as well.”

Aurora takes over, “So we are saying them now, if you’ll have us.”

Phillip retrieved a ring from his pocket, simple and beautiful, and held it towards Mulan.

“Marry us?”

Mulan’s nod causes Phillip and Aurora to rise to their feet, Mulan instantly gripping Aurora’s hand to assist her. They repeat their vows, Mulan stating hers last as the ring is slipped onto her finger.

They make love into the early hours of the morning, Phillip calling each of them ‘wife’ in turn, even when Mulan slapped him playfully on the chest. As they settled together to finally sleep, Aurora let her hand linger on her slightly swollen stomach.

“We’ve made an honest woman out of your mama now, little one.”

“I think you’ll find,” Mulan muttered into Phillip’s neck, “That we made an honest woman out of _you_.”


	5. The Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mulan wears her wedding ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, where did that year go!

Mulan doesn’t remove her ring. She had suggested it, but had been predictably shot down by her spouses.

She usually wears gloves, so many do not notice, but as soon as her hands a visible, eyebrows are raised.

The maid assigned to Mulan’s rarely used quarter’s whispers a quiet “congratulations” when she first sees it.

O’Roy, one of her best soldier’s winks at her, “Got an old ball and chain, ay? Ball and _chains_.”

Carter, an infinitely knowledgeable adviser when it comes to infrastructure, and an unbearable snob when it comes to everything else, sneers at all three of them, “ _Indeed_.”

Others, such as the skilled but single minded blacksmith Mulan entrusts with the care of her sword, look at the ring with mild confusion, as if trying to remember if it had been there before.

There are a few dirty looks; Brennan, who is nothing but respectful but is always clearly moments away from a slur, turns red and grits his teeth. 

 

What Mulan takes away from most reactions is that her, Philip and Mulan are fooling almost nobody, and those they are will not notice a new piece of jewelry anyway. It’s oddly comforting.


	6. Cravings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aurora does not get cravings while she's pregnant. Philip and Mulan do.

Phillip and Mulan want her to distraction while she is pregnant. Aurora enjoys it immensely at first, basking in their attention, but as her pregnancy progresses she finds herself with less and less energy.

 

She’s drifting off to sleep one night when she feels two sets of lips start tracing their way over her body. Groaning, she pushes both her spouses away.

 

She takes in their pouting faces and rolls her eyes.

 

“I adore you both, and making love is one of my favourite things. But I am _exhausted_ , they baby has taken almost all my energy and you two are taking the rest of it. I need a night off!”

 

They both look chastised and she softens long enough to give them each a quick kiss. They’re both naked, and for a moment she reconsiders. But her eyes are heavy and she needs to sleep.

 

“How about you just be with each other tonight?”

 

Mulan grins at Phillip, “As you wish, princess.”

 

They leap at each other, settling next to Aurora as she begins to drift off. She watches them for a while, enjoying the sight of them lost in each other until her she falls asleep to the sound of them making love.


End file.
